Everlasting Lights, a Civil War novella is fast moving and surprising. The characters find themselves in the throes of war recovery…all of the soldiers in the family accounted for.. Some dead, some wounded and one missing, premed dead. This man is the one for home an everlasting light burns. Families and friends do not survive the destruction of war.

Is this man, Braeden McKenna, really dead as it seems? His wife, Alaina, cannot accept that. She is mildly supported by his parents and one faithful Negro. She is ‘assailed’ by his best friend who also has always admired her and encourages her to move on and marry HIM. There are shades of domestic problems in scenes before Alaina and Braeden are married…as one other reviewer put it, the second man is probably more mature and responsible. That isn’t how fate works…Alaina loves Braeden, the man had a jealous snit when she danced with his best friend before the war and who survived but assumed she died in an epidemic, so didn’t bust himself to be certain. He does come home finally, after the friend has left to ‘go West’ in his economically broken situation. Almost everyone else in the book died during the War, either from battle wounds or small pox, which contribute to Braden’s assumption that they all died. War is terrible as the various scenes included make plain. Death and destruction along with political confusion made for horrific conditions.

It seems as if there is a lot of emotion and history sort of ‘crammed’ together to get a complicated story run through in the novella length. That is an engineering condition often suffered by a shorter story…not wrong or bad, but there. The book has definite Christian points presented, no profanity, no smut and makes a wholesome pleasure read for a long winter afternoon. Andrea Boeshaar has a long list of books for readers to enjoy.

A peek into the lives of people, both Confederate and Yankee, who endured the American Civil War. This story is based around family history, but is pleasant fiction. There were ‘every day’ things that went on in the lives of people who were around the battlefields. They were affected by everything that went on during the war — shortages, hostility, feuding — without having actually been in battle.

There is more than one hero in the book — both men and women. Prejudice is examined with some scary scenes reminding us of events that should not be forgotten, even though forgiven. The trauma of being a severely wounded warrior adds one of the author’s famous ‘twists’ to the story. The story takes every sad event and brings it full circle to peace for the families who live in a small Mississippi town. When there is a need for a field hospital, another need to preserve a plantation home is met as the home becomes a healing place for some of the wounded.

Through the misery of war, true love sprouts and takes root. I like the way the author doesn’t make everything come out syrupy even for all of the characters. Some die, some are not the romantic love focus, but become the focus of greater love for souls and community. Some characters are mean and nasty, others hope filled and ambitious for their future after the war.

This is not an afternoon, speed read, but not difficult to stay with either. B.J. Robinson, author has opted to write about the people and their hearts, leaving battlefield logistics and statistics to others. There is no unnecessary or unseemly violence. No graphic sexual content written to fill more pages. This author favors at least one twist in a story so that just when you think you have it all figured out, something different happens, but she does the twisting gently and doesn’t wreck the flow of the story. You can read, lay it down and come back when you get another chance to read. Excellent for digital reading.

Amazing are the little things in our history — the little people that are often not noticed as we observe a few who held ‘leading roles’ in historical circumstances. These ‘little people’ have voices frequently in authors as do the victims of an arsenal fire at Washington DC during the War Between the States. Buy “The Stonecutter’s Gift”.

Joy Ross Davis gives voice to these women with a story about what probably was a pattern of their day-to-day lives. Some joy, much sorrow as sickness and poverty took their toll. Still, the women and the people who cared for them worked through each day, awaiting tomorrow.

Then, came the day when someone’s ignorance caused the catastrophic fire, taking the lives of those who were willingly enduring their day-to-day with no plans to die. Adding to the grief already enveloping the land, expanding it to non-military people. Crushing dreams of the ones left alive.

The Stonecutter’s Gift shows us a man, Lot Flarnneyr with a gift to find the beauty and character hidden in a block of marble. Joy Ross Davis’s elegant, moving way with words tells a story of what might have been more about Lot Flannery’s life and community, while giving us a familiar glimpse of the kind angel of death we met in the earlier volume Joy Ross Davis wrote for this Murray Pura Civil War series, The Sutler of Gettysburg. Love in all facets give life to a long-forgotten story.

I recommend Joy Ross Davis writing for your ‘inspired reading pleasure’. She ‘has a way with words’ that make her stories keepers. She doesn’t ‘mill’ out the same-old, same-old in her stories so you can read them all and enjoy differences that make each memorable. Treat yourself to some good writing which makes for great reading.

The tangled webs of life are brought to light in a story set in times of The War Between the States. We see slavery at its cruelest — any form is the ugliest. These are perilous times with more at risk than a proposal which comes with the maturity of the characters.

Fathers and mothers separated from families, children and lovers, cruelly beaten and abused women, runaway children — a story that circles around to bring reunion, new love, new heros and new risks. All fiction, but as researchers will tell you, nothing can be made-up that is stranger than the things that actually happen.

A Perilous Proposal is a story filled with all of these dramatic turns to make for a ‘loaded’ time of reading that becomes inspiration and pleasure making you glad you learned about this story and this author. I recommend the beginning book of a series and the author. Michael Phillips leads a series for these characters — this is not a ‘flinch free’ story because of the violence perpetrated on the slave characters and their supportive protectors. A Perilous Proposal on Amazon.

Murray Pura and Daughter, Micala have spun a heart-felt and wholesome story about Canadians who were soldiers in the American Civil War — a conflict you might expect Canadians willing to sit back and watch…”Not our problem.”

But, did you know that the Underground Railroad, delivery system for runaway slaves, had some ending depots in Canada? Meet some characters who represent the people who were seeking freedom.

Jack Burns, a farmer and fisherman of Nova Scotia who leaves his motherless child with family while he enlists in the Union army to support what he believes is right. The story is woven poetically through correspondence between Dan and his daughter, Kitt who is eleven when Jack leaves. The eloquent letters coming to the lonely father become the encouraging light and the saving grace for the entire regiment of the Army of the Cumberland, where Jack Burns serves. The lonely soldiers have adopted his daughter, calling her Sweet Child of Mine in their hearts, as a mascot and eagerly await her poetic blessings and outpourings of love and loneliness for her father. They don’t know the child’s full name, but felt the sweet phrase fit better than other names they might have used.

While the story is spread over two years in general, the largest part focuses on the season at the base of Missionary Ridge in Tennessee. Some who are waiting for the battle to take up claim to be atheists while others can quote Scripture at the drop of a hat to support the promises and prophesy that motivates Jack to believe they will claim Missionary Ridge for the Union forces as they battle for Lookout Mountain and Missionary Ridge.

The epilogue is fulfilling, though unexpected.

Sweet Child of Mine is truly a sweet story of a man and child of faith who stand firm in their trust for the outcome of their time apart. As the Eleventh volume in Murray Pura’s Cry of Freedom series, Sweet Child of Mine speaks of the father’s sense of freedom’s cry which called to Murray Pura begging for this collection to be written. Very appropriate that the poetic and tender presentation comes from a Canadian father and daughter.

Research and terms are historically apt…Missionary David Brainer is described as a ‘lunger’ who died from the ravages of consumption, but till the end served up the salvation message to the Delaware, Cherokee and other tribes. The missionaries had used obscure trails up the face of the cliff to reach the Cherokee villages at the top. These same trails, even more obscure, but till there were used by Union soldiers in their charge up to and over the top of Missionary Ridge. Statistics discussing the 50,000 Canadians who crossed the border to participate in this monumental conflict are not commonly known, but should be.